China Compliments Philippine President Duterte for His Commitment to Bilateral Ties

MANILA, Philippines — Beijing has welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to visit China despite the maritime dispute over the South China Sea, part of which Manila claims and calls the West Philippine Sea.

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The president is scheduled to visit China on Oct. 20 and 21. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said that China was hoping that Duterte would make his visit at an earlier date.

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“We commend President Duterte’s attachment of importance to China-Philippines relations, and believe that high-level exchanges will contribute to bilateral friendly cooperation and regional peace, stability, development and prosperity,” Geng said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

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Geng stressed that both China and the Philippines are willing to improve bilateral operations and carry out mutually beneficial cooperation.

“We are also willing to enhance pragmatic cooperation across the board, achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results, and deliver benefits to the two countries and peoples,” Geng said.

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The president earlier said that he will ask China to allow Filipinos to fish in Scarborough Shoal –also known as Panatag and Baja de Masinloc — which is within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines but which China has de facto control over.

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Duterte said that he will set aside the maritime dispute during his trip to China.

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In July, an international arbitral court ruled in a case filed by the Philippines that China’s nine-dash line claim over a large part of the South China Sea had no legal basis. China has refused to acknowledge the ruling and has insisted that the dispute should be settled in direct talks between claimants.

In this Friday Sept. 6, 2016 photo, an alleged drug suspect lies on the ground beside a gun after he and his companion were killed by police as they tried to evade a checkpoint as part of the continuing “War on Drugs” campaign of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Quezon city, north of Manila, Philippines.AP Photo/Aaron Favila

Funeral service workers carry the body of an alleged drug suspect following a police operation that left 2 brothers and an unidentified person dead as part of the continuing “War on Drugs” campaign of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on Thursday, Oct. 6, 016. How well are agencies complying with President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order on Freedom of Information? The PCIJ documents its experience. AP/Aaron Favila

In this picture taken on July 8, 2016, police officers investigate the dead body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading “I’m a pusher”, on a street in Manila. Getty Images

FILE – In this Aug. 15, 2016 file photo, human rights activists light candles for the victims of extra-judicial killings around the country in the wake of “War on Drugs” campaign by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines. AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File

Above Chinese chart shows China’s “Nine Dash Line.” China says it owns all ocean territory north of the Nine Dash Line. There is no international legal precedent for this claim. On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said this claim by China was not valid.